Definitional Rhetoric & Public Culture

The Power of Messages suggest that we live in three very distinct, but that overlap one another. These three worlds are our physical world, social world, and symbol world. It is important to acknowledge that all of the worlds unite; one cannot exist without the others. The Power of Messages informs that they all "provided us boundaries, resources, and challenges." 

To begin, The Power of Messages suggests that many may believe that humans have mastered the physical realm. Human's have come close to mastering the physical world through exploring ideas such as sailboats, aircraft, space exploration, automobiles, gravity, and many more inventions and sciences. However, "our physical world often reminds us that we have neither total nor adequate control of physical conditions. One hurricane, one deadly virus, one tsunami,  or one ravaging fire can quickly remind us that all of out efforts, improvements, technologies, and skills are at times puny" (The Power of Messages). We can anticipate and plan for our physical environment; however, we will most liking never fully "master" it. 

Also, people's social world alters in various cultures and time. Most commonly, families prepare members to be introduced into society by practicing social norms. For example, eating with silverware is a norm in America, whereas the social realm in Asian cultures uses chopsticks. Additionally, Mark Twain proposes a flaw to people's conforming to a society when he says, "a nation is only an individual multiplied" ( http://thinkexist.com/quotations/society/2.html). Moreover, social interactions consist in many different situations, but they allow us to help make sense of situations. The "social world often is the source of our greatest contentment and the foot of our most maddening distractions." 

Finally, the symbol world consists of sounds and images that influence our thinking. It is essential to be aware of our social world because "the use of language tools and habits allow us to manipulate words and images about time, space, and physical conditions" (The Power of Messages). Therefore, if we do not pay attention to how others employs sounds and images in the symbol world we can fall a victim to things such as false advertisement. 

Ultimately, people must recognize how the three worlds overlap. The Power of Messages explains the constant unification of the three worlds, "We have used our symbol world to describe, understand, and manipulate our physical world. Our physical world holds the constraints and possibilities that make our creation of symbols, worlds, and language possible. Our social world deeply influence how we use material resources to construct what some scholars call our "built" environment."